GIFT  OF 


HE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 
THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF 
THE  CHURCH 


BY 
CHARLES  GORE,  M.A.,  D.D.,  HON.  D.C.L-,  Oxford 

BISHOP  OF  OXFORD 
AUTHOR  OF  "the  PERMANENT  CREED,"  "THE  NEW  THE- 
OLOGY AND  THE  OLD  RELIGION,"  "THE  QUESTION 
OF   DIVORCE,"   "THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 
CHURCH,"  ETC. 


GIFT 
JUL. 23    19io 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


ice  Ten  Cents 


*f  4'2' 


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THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF 

THE  CHURCH 

Surely  the  Christian  Church,  in  all  its  parts  and 
members,  should  welcome  the  project  of  the  League  of 
Nations  and  organise  itself  into  vigorous  unanimity  to 
press  it  to  the  front  in  the  attention  of  all  civilised 
peoples:  both  as  a  practical  proposal  made  to  us  by 
our  most  experienced  and  most  trusted  statesmen  and 
as  a  proposal  profoundly  congenial  to  the  Christian 
spirit.  This  is  the  thesis  which  I  seek  to  maintain  in 
this  paper. 

THE  PROPOSAL  OF  THE  LEAGUE 

The  proposal,  I  repeat,  comes  not  from  wild  idealists 
but  from  practical  statesmen,  from  President  Wilson 
and  Mr.  Taft,  from  Mr.  Asquith,  Mr.  Lloyd  George, 
Lord  Grey  and  Mr.  Balfour,  and  from  others  in  the 
allied  and  neutral  nations,  to  say  nothing  at  present 
about  Germany  and  Austria.  Such  men  cannot  be 
accused  of  seeking  "peace  at  any  price,"  or  of  failing 
to  appreciate  the  supreme  importance  of  prosecuting 
the  war  with  unremitting  energy  to  the  furthest  pos- 

1 

380048 


2  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

sible  point  of  success.  But  they  will  not  be  satisfied 
with  military  successes.  They  demand  also  this  pacific 
measure — the  organisation  of  a  League  of  Nations. 
They  regard  it,  no  doubt,  as  difficult  of  realisation  but 
not  as  impracticable.  They  speak  of  it  as  the  most 
hopeful,  perhaps  the  only  hopeful,  basis  of  a  just  and 
enduring  peace. 

Something  will  have  to  be  said  later  about  the  details 
of  the  scheme,  so  far  as  they  have  been  formulated  or 
outlined.  But  let  us  take  it  now  simply  in  its  most 
general  idea — that  of  a  League  of  Nations  to  maintain 
and  enforce  peace,  with  an  international  tribunal  to 
decide  "justiciable"  disputes  between  nations — that  is 
such  questions  as  having  been  embodied  in  treaties  or 
coming  under  the  head  of  some  accepted  international 
law  admit  of  settlement  by  judicial  process — and  for 
the  greater  matters  of  controversy  an  international 
court  of  arbitration  which  must  at  least  have  all  such 
matters  fully  laid  before  it  by  the  contending  nations, 
and  have  time  allowed  to  it  to  make  proposals  and  to 
have  them  listened  to  and  considered  by  both  sides, 
before  either  nation  or  group  of  nations  could  go  to 
war  or  mobilise  its  forces  for  war  without  becoming 
the  enemy  of  the  whole  League;  and  the  authority  of 
the  League  is  to  have  behind  it  the  sanction  of  eco- 
nomic pressure  to  be  exerted  by  the  whole  League — 
such  as  the  boycotting  of  a  recalcitrant  nation — and, 
at  the  last  resort,  the  armed  force  of  the  whole  League 
to  support  its  action. 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 


THE    REACTION    IN    POPULAE    PHILOSOPHY 

Now  it  represents  a  great  change  in  international 
politics  that  our  responsible  statesmen  should  accept  as 
practicable  such  an  embodiment  of  a  supernational 
authority.  But  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  idea 
of  a  League  of  Nations  is,  through  the  welcome  these 
statesmen  have  given  it,  taking  the  place  formerly  held 
in  men's  minds  by  the  idea  of  the  Balance  of  Power. 

The  idea  of  the  Balance  of  Power  was  rooted  in  the 
principle  of  selfishness — the  corporate  selfishness  of 
nations.  Every  nation,  it  was  assumed,  would  seek  its 
own  ends  undeterred  by  any  consideration  for  its  neigh- 
bours' welfare.  The  only  way  to  minimise  the  threat 
of  war,  arising  from  jarring  interests,  whenever  one 
nation  should  have  the  strength  to  crush  another,  was 
to  organise  such  combinations  of  nations  in  rival  alli- 
ances as  to  balance  one  another  and  to  produce  an 
equilibrium  in  which  the  chances  on  either  side  of  vic- 
tory or  defeat  would  be  so  equahsed  as  to  reduce  to  a 
minimum  the  probability  of  any  nation  being  willing  to 
take  the  risk  of  war. 

There  was  here  no  appeal  to  any  higher  motive  than 
national  selfishness.  On  the  moral  plane  the  idea  of  the 
balance  of  power  among  the  nations  was  of  a  piece  with 
the  idea  which  was  at  work  in  the  industrial  world,  the 
idea  of  free  competition  between  individuals  or  classes ; 
each  individual  or  class,  or  group  of  individuals  or 
classes,  being  supposed  to  have  no  motive  which  could 


4  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

effectively  be  appealed  to  than  the  motive  of  unlimited 
acquisitiveness,  the  desire  to  sell  its  goods  or  its  labour 
in  the  dearest  and  to  buy  the  goods  and  labour  of 
others  in  the  cheapest  market.  The  good  of  the  world, 
it  was  imagined,  would  best  be  secured  by  this  prin- 
ciple of  unrestricted  competition,  in  which  appeal  was 
made,  in  industrial  or  political  life,  to  no  other  motive 
except  intelligent  selfishness,  individual  or  corporate. 
Intelligent  self-interest,  science  and  commerce,  without 
any  higher  moral  appeal,  were  relied  upon  as  the  in- 
struments of  progress  and  peace. 

Such  a  philosophy  was  at  its  zenith  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century.  But  we  have  seen  its  setting.  Long 
before  the  war  the  philosophy  of  selfishness  had  been 
discredited  alike  in  the  internal  life  of  nations  and  in 
their  mutual  relations.  Within  the  nations  it  had  led 
to  the  commercial  exploiting  of  the  weak  by  the  strong, 
and  to  disgusting  extremes  of  poverty  and  wealth ;  and, 
in  reaction  from  these  abuses,  it  threatened  us  with  civil 
wars,  the  wars  of  labour  against  capital.  Society 
appeared  to  be  tending  to  disruption.  In  the  wider 
relations  of  nations,  it  kept  us  perpetually  on  the  edge 
of  the  dreaded  gulf  of  war,  war  made  far  more  horrible 
by  the  progress  of  science ;  and  the  "Balance  of  Power," 
on  which  it  had  bidden  us  fix  our  hopes,  had  shown 
itself  quite  powerless  to  deal  either  equitably  or  suc- 
cessfully with  the  problems  of  insurgent  nationality 
such  as  presented  themselves  in  the  break-up  of  the  old 
Turkish  Empire,  which  the  great  nations  had  taken 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH       6 

upon  themselves  to  solve  without  war,  and  had  con- 
spicuously failed. 

Thus,  the  philosophy  of  selfishness,  the  basis  of  the 
theory  of  unrestricted  competition  in  commerce  or  of 
the  balance  of  power  in  international  politics,  had  be- 
come widely  and  generally  discredited.  Commerce 
and  science  had  shown  themselves  at  least  as  efficient 
instruments  of  tyranny,  injustice  and  war  as  of  fra- 
ternity and  peace.  The  world  was  disillusioned.  Its 
nineteenth-century  ideals  were  dimmed  or  discarded. 
And  then  the  dreaded  thing  suddenly  happened.  The 
great  war  engulfed  the  world  and  holds  it  still  in  deep- 
ening desolation  and  anxiety — "men's  hearts  failing 
them  for  fear  and  for  looking  after  those  things  that 
are  coming  on  the  earth." 

We  simply  cannot  face  the  future  without  some 
fundamental  "repentance"  or  change  of  mind  in  the 
nations — corporate  repentance  on  the  widest  scale. 
We  cannot  face  the  prospect  of  a  peace,  patched  up 
with  whatever  balance  of  success  on  one  side  or  the 
other  at  the  end  of  this  war,  which  shall  leave  every 
nation  to  expend  its  resources  again  in  piling  up  gigan- 
tic armaments  and  entering  into  rival  alliances,  ready, 
as  soon  as  an  interval  of  time  has  supplied  a  measure 
of  recovered  strength,  to  break  out  again  in  renewed 
war.  Equally  we  dare  not  face  the  future  in  home 
politics  on  the  basis  of  class  war.  The  two  prospects 
together  threaten  our  civilisation  with  nothing  less  than 
dissolution. 

We  have  read  skilful  pictures  drawn  by  imaginative 


6  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

artists  as  from  3000  a.  d.  of  another  civilisation,  a  re- 
cently recovered  civilisation,  looking  back  with  horror 
upon  the  dark  ages  which  had  followed  the  total  break- 
up of  our  present  civilisation  under  the  twin  hammers 
of  social  and  international  war.  We  could  not  be 
amused  at  these  cleverly  drawn  pictures.  They  had  a 
horrible  verisimilitude.  "The  giant  forms  of  empires 
on  their  way  to  ruin"  is  indeed  a  familiar  feature  in  the 
world's  history.  We  read  of  the  decadence  of  civilisa- 
tions in  the  past  almost  unmoved.  But  we  had  never 
contemplated  the  dissolution  of  our  own  civilisation — a 
relapse  into  barbarism  after  all  its  boasts  of  secure 
progress.  It  is  this  terror  which  has  frightened  us  out 
of  our  old  philosophy  of  unlimited  competition.  At 
home  we  see  that  we  must  substitute  the  true  ideal  of 
freedom — the  welfare  of  the  whole  body  and  of  each 
individual  member  of  it  as  dominant  over  the  selfish 
ambitions  of  its  more  capable  members.  In  some  broad 
sense  we  have  almost  all  become  socialists. 

But  Mazzini  has  shown  us  that  it  is  not  enough  to 
think  of  the  world  in  terms  of  nations.  It  is  not  enough 
to  secure  the  supremacy  of  the  nation  over  the  indi- 
vidual or  the  family.  And  there  is  no  logic  in  breaking 
off  at  this  point.  As  the  individual  is  a  member  of  the 
nation  and  must  subordinate  himself  to  the  welfare  of 
the  whole,  so  is  the  nation  to  the  whole  body  of  nations 
— to  humanity.  There,  toe — in  the  international  rela- 
tions— ^we  need  a  socialism  to  subordinate  nations  to 
the  good  of  the  race.  This  is  the  great  repentance — 
the  deliberate  change  of  mind — asked  of  us. 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH       7 

It  is  true  that  during  the  dominance  of  the  old 
philosophy  of  selfish  individualism  there  have  been 
prophets  of  a  truer  faith  who  showed  how  rotten  was 
the  basis  upon  which  we  were  seeking  to  rest  our 
civilisation.  Such  were  Thomas  Carlyle  and  John 
Ruskin,  and  such  was  the  man  just  mentioned,  who  was 
truly  the  greatest  prophet  of  democracy — Joseph 
Mazzini.  It  is  true,  also,  that  there  were  good  Chris- 
tians, such  as  William  Wilberforce  and  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury, who  broke  in  upon  the  accepted  assumptions  of 
our  political  and  industrial  life  with  the  insistent  and 
imperious  demand  for  mercy  and  justice.  And  a  kindly 
and  Christian  human  nature  was  always  and  everywhere 
mitigating  the  remorseless  dogmas  of  philosophers  and 
economists  even  in  the  regions  of  trade  or  politics. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  age  was  against  them.  The 
philosophy  of  individualistic  competition  was  the  domi- 
nant spirit;  and  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the 
whole  situation  was  that  the  Christian  Church,  in  the 
main  and  in  all  countries,  was  content  to  be  silent, 
drugged  by  the  dogmatic  assurances  of  a  false  philo- 
sophy into  acquiescence  in  principles  which  practically 
excluded  the  fundamental  Christian  maxims  from  any 
application  to  the  world  of  industry  and  to  the  relations 
of  nations  to  one  another. 

As  we  contemplate  the  history  of  the  world  during 
what  may  be  called  the  period  of  industrialism,  which 
is  the  period  also  when  the  idea  of  the  balance  of  power 
held  sway  amongst  nations,  the  silence  of  the  Christian 
Church — the  absence  of  any  corporate  protest  in  favour 


8  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

of  the  fundamental  principles  of  human  fellowship  and 
peace — the  acquiescence  of  the  Church  in  economic 
selfishness  and  a  narrow  patriotism  appears  as  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  instances  of  moral  blindness  which 
history  presents  to  us,  at  least  as  remarkable  as  the 
earlier  blindness  of  the  Church  to  the  sinfulness  of  per- 
secution and  torture  as  instruments  for  disseminating 
or  defending  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  again  as 
remarkable  as  the  blindness  of  the  post-Reformation 
Church  to  the  iniquity  of  slavery.  But  it  is  not  too 
late  for  the  Christian  Church  to  recover  its  true  voice. 
The  old  dominant  notes  are  now  hushed.  A  great 
change  of  mind  and  ideals  has  come  over  the  world,  both 
the  world  of  industry  and  the  world  of  international 
politics. 

With  the  former  region — ^the  world  of  industry — we 
are  not  here  concerned.  But  in  the  latter  region  the 
change  is  marked  by  the  rise  of  the  demand  for  the 
League  of  Nations.  It  affords  the  Christian  Church 
the  greatest  opportunity  it  has  had,  since  the  war 
began,  to  make  its  distinctive  contribution  to  the 
influences  telling  upon  the  nations  and  to  show  the 
special  quality  of  true  Christian  patriotism. 

But  is  it  really  the  case  that  there  is  a  distinctive 
kind  of  patriotism  which  is  Christian  by  contrast  to 
the  patriotism  which  commonly  possesses  men?  Has 
Christianity  really  anything  to  do  with  international 
politics?  That  is  the  question,  and  the  reasons  for  an 
affirmative  answer  are  profound  and  convincing. 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH       9 


CHRIST    AND   PATEIOTISM 

1.  That  Jesus  Christ  was  a  patriot,  who  felt  in  His 
blood  the  passion  of  the  love  of  country,  is  apparent  in 
His  agonised  cry  over  apostate  Jerusalem.  Let  it  be 
taken  for  granted  that  He  gave  His  sanction  to 
patriotism,  as  a  divine  instinct,  like  the  love  of  home. 
But  like  every  "natural"  instinct  it  is  full  of  self-asser- 
tion and  sin ;  and  Jesus  of  Nazareth  stands  at  the  head 
of  the  great  succession  of  Israel's  prophets  in  claiming 
that  patriotism  shall  be  purged  and  curbed  and  re- 
formed. This  is  evident  in  His  whole  relation  towards 
that  intense  patriotism  which  characterised  the  Jew. 
It  was  an  acute  form  of  what  we  now  call  "national- 
ism," the  demand  for  national  independence  and,  beyond 
that,  for  Jewish  supremacy  in  the  world.  Such  an 
arrogant  claim  on  the  part  of  so  insignificant  a  people 
as  the  Jews  in  face  of  the  Roman  Empire  is  to  be 
accounted  for  by  the  religious  faith  which  lay  behind 
it.  The  prophets  had  foretold  the  supremacy  of  Israel, 
The  world  was  to  find  its  centre  in  Jerusalem  and  its 
temple;  and  from  that  centre  the  authority  of  the 
sacred  law  was  to  be  supreme  over  all  the  nations.  It 
is  true  that,  as  the  prophets  were  interpreted  by  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Church,  it  appeared  that  their  meaning 
had  been  misunderstood  and  perverted  by  Jewish 
patriotism.  Still  the  common  interpretation  lay  on  the 
surface  of  the  prophecies. 

When  our  Lord  came  into  the  world  the  Pharisees 


10  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

had  indeed  settled  down  to  acquiesce  in  the  supremacy 
of  Rome — all  the  more  readily  because  they  had  been 
badly  used  in  the  period  of  Jewish  independence  by  the 
Hasmonean  priest-kings.  The  Sadducees,  in  like  man- 
ner, were  content  that  their  ruling  family  should  hold 
a  position  of  local  administration  under  Roman  control. 
But  the  heart  of  the  people  never  acquiesced.  The 
spirit  of  nationalism  still  dominated  them.  Of  this 
nationalist  movement  the  Zealots  were  the  fanatical 
leaders.  And  we  can  best  understand  the  attitude  of 
Jesus  towards  this  movement  if  we  think  of  one  of  the 
twelve,  Simon  the  Zealot. 

We  can  understand  quite  well  how  he  would  have 
interpreted  the  proclamation  of  the  Kingdom  and  the 
coming  of  the  Christ,  when  it  began  to  be  whispered 
that  the  new  prophet,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  was  "he  that 
should  come."  If  the  awful  majesty  of  Rome  seemed 
to  make  Jewish  pretensions  ridiculous,  doubtless  the 
Zealot  expected  the  miraculous  arm  of  God  to  be  bared 
to  effect  the  impossible  upheaval.  Was  "anything 
too  hard  for  the  Lord".''  But  when  he  joined  the 
company  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  he  found  himself 
subjected  to  a  bitter  disillusionment.  Nothing,  it  ap- 
peared, was  further  from  our  Lord's  intention  than  to 
head  a  movement  of  Jewish  emancipation.  Nay,  when 
it  became  evident  that  the  people  of  Israel  was,  in  bulk, 
rejecting  Him,  it  appeared  also  that  in  His  eyes  Israel 
was  doomed,  and  the  most  solemn  and  definite  announce- 
ments came  from  His  lips  that  Jerusalem  and  its  temple 
were  destined  to  immediate  and  complete  overthrow  at 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     11 

the  hands  of  the  Gentiles.  The  judgment  of  God,  awful 
and  irreversible,  was  upon  them. 

This  did  not  mean  that  the  purpose  of  God  would 
fail.  As  our  Lord's  intention  made  itself  gradually 
manifest,  it  appeared  that  a  catholic  church,  in  which 
Jews  were  to  have  no  prerogative  position,  was  to  take 
the  place  of  the  Jewish  nation-church.  The  "whole 
world"  was  the  horizon  of  Christ. 

Perhaps  no  harder  claim  was  ever  made  upon  the 
heart  and  mind  of  a  man  than  was  made  when  Simon 
the  Zealot  was  bidden  by  Jesus  Christ  steadily  to  con- 
template the  irretrievable  ruin  of  his  nation  and  its 
sacred  shrine,  and  then,  instead  of  bursting  into  tears 
and  wringing  his  hands,  to  be  so  detached  from  the 
anguish  of  his  nation  that  he  could  look  out  with  an 
eager  joy  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  purpose  of  God — 
the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  which  the  ruin  of  Israel 
was  but  the  necessary  prelude.  "When  these  things 
begin  to  come  to  pass,  then  look  up  and  lift  up  your 
heads,  for  your  redemption  draweth  nigh." 

This  piece  of  imaginary  biography,  which  cannot 
be  far  from  the  truth,  can  effectively  show  us  how  far 
the  patriotism  which  Jesus  sanctions  is  from  common 
patriotism.  The  patriotism  which  is  common  is  always 
narrow  or  selfish.  It  always  claims  God  and  His 
power  for  its  own  nationalist  ends.  It  is  a  spirit  of  cor- 
porate selfishness.  But  the  patriotism  which  Jesus  can 
bless  always  sees  the  nation  as  the  instrument  of  a 
divine  purpose  wider  than   itself.     The  nation  is   the 


12  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

servant  in  a  cause  which  is  to  minister  impartially  to 
the  good  of  all  mankind. 

Thus  it  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the  restraint 
and  the  claim  of  sacrifice  which  Christ  laid  on  the  in- 
stinct of  patriotism.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  no  such 
claim  is  now  made  on  us,  British  or  Germans  or  French- 
men or  Serbians  or  Belgians,  as  was  made  on  Simon 
the  Zealot  and  on  his  Jewish  brethren.  We  are  not 
required  to  contemplate  as  lying  in  the  purpose  of  God 
the  extinction  of  our  national  independence  and  the 
ruin  of  all  that  we  associate  with  the  name  of  our 
country.  For  that  we  thank  God,  indeed.  But  it  is  a 
severe  yoke  that  is  laid  upon  our  popular  patriotism. 
We  are  required  to  humiliate  its  arrogance  and  to 
banish  its  selfishness.  We  are  required  to  value  our 
nation  as  an  instrument  for  ends  that  are  wider  than 
our  nation.  We  are  required,  practically,  to  remember 
that  in  the  sight  of  God,  in  the  judgment  of  Christ, 
no  nation  has  any  prerogative  right,  that  He  cares 
equally  for  every  race  of  every  colour  or  capacity, 
and  that  He  lays  it  upon  each  nation  alike  to  make 
the  most  of  itself  and  its  resources  in  order  that  it  may 
better  minister  to  the  needs  of  all  mankind,  and  main- 
tain the  universal  and  impartial  interests  of  justice 
and  freedom  and  peace. 

CHKIST    AND    CATHOLICITY 

2.  This  impartiality  of  God  in  the  face  of  all  that 
divides  men  was  at  the  heart  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 


( 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     13 

Christ  about  the  fatherhood  of  God.  He  has  no  special 
regard  for  the  important  people — the  rich,  or  the 
learned,  or  the  powerful.  He  cares  for  all  alike  with 
a  solicitous,  exacting  and  particular  love.  He  makes 
on  all  the  same  claim  for  a  universal  and  particular 
care  for  others.  Even  the  barrier  of  nationality  goes 
down.  It  was  true  that  He  was  sent  only  "to  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  House  of  Israel" — that  His  direct  mis- 
sion was  only  to  Israel.  He  even  spoke  a  word  which 
savoured  of  contempt  in  the  hearing  of  His  disciples 
to  the  woman  of  Canaan,  when  He  was  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  Holy  Land.  But  we  cannot  but  believe 
that  He,  who  had  so  wonderful  a  power  of  reading 
men's  hearts,  saw  that  she  would  bear  the  strain  of  this 
rebuff,  and  that  He  spoke  the  word  of  seeming  scorn  in 
view  of  the  welcome  into  which  it  was  to  break.  He 
found  the  essential  quality  of  faith  in  the  Canaanitish 
woman,  as  in  the  Roman  centurion.  And  this  in  His 
eyes  was  the  only  essential  quality.  He  anticipated 
the  judgment  that  "with  God  is  no  respect  of  persons, 
but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh 
righteousness  is  accepted  of  Him."  He  talks  about 
"the  whole  world"  and  not  Israel  as  the  sphere  of  the 
Gospel.  Finally,  He  sends  His  disciples  to  "make  dis- 
ciples of  all  the  nations."  Thus  St.  Paul,  the  apostle 
of  Catholicism,  was  true  to  the  spirit  of  his  Master, 
and  expounded  truly  His  inner  mind.  And  St.  Paul's 
glorious  assertion  of  the  principle  of  Catholicism  marks 
an  epoch  in  human  thought. 

It  is  true  that  a  certain  conception  of  the  unity  of 


14  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

humanity  gained  possession  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
apart  from  Christianity.  But  it  involved  the  inclusion 
of  all  races  under  a  single  government.  Again,  a  cer- 
tain cosmopolitan  ideal  is  represented  by  Stoicism.  But 
Stoicism  never  showed  any  signs  of  power  to  convert 
the  world.  It  was  a  "monastic"  philosophy  for  the 
elect  "wise  man."  Its  ideal  was  detachment,  not  love. 
But  St.  Paul  proclaims  a  jubilant  gospel  of  universal 
brotherhood  in  Christ  without  distinction  of  race  or 
class  or  sex — a  fellowship  of  all  mankind  in  a  catholic 
church. 

When  you  come  to  work  out  the  realisation  of  this 
idea  in  history  you  see  how  ingrained  in  the  heart  of 
man  is  the  pride  or  narrowness  which  resists  it  and 
often  appears  to  defeat  it.  St.  Paul  faced  the  full  force 
of  this  resistance.  The  church  in  Jerusalem,  which 
seems  in  the  early  chapters  of  the  Acts  to  be  aflame 
with  love,  so  as  to  ignore  the  limitations  of  private 
property  and  to  have  "all  things  common,"  exhibits 
this  power  of  love  only  so  long  as  all  the  brethren  are 
Jews  who  "keep  the  tradition,"  and  breaks  out  into 
resentment  and  active  hostility,  hardly  to  be  restrained 
even  by  James,  the  Lord's  brother,  as  soon  as  it  appears 
that  Gentiles  and  Jews  are  to  be  on  equal  terms  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  This  reaction  of  Jewish  narrowness 
failed  of  its  baneful  effect  upon  the  Christian  develop- 
ment on  the  whole,  partly  through  the  influence  of 
St.  Paul,  but  even  more  because  the  small  strictly 
Jewish  element  in  the  early  Catholic  Church  was  swal- 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     15 

lowed  up  in  the  inrush  of  Gentiles,  and  was  obliterated 
in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

Then  there  was  no  further  difficulty  about  the  catholic 
idea  within  the  Roman  Empire  and  its  vast  power.  It 
is  true  that  from  very  early  times  Christianity  got 
beyond  the  Roman  Empire,  as  at  Edessa,  and  Chris- 
tianity outside  the  Empire  showed  separate  tenden- 
cies. It  is  true  also  that  within  the  Roman  Empire, 
before  it  broke  up,  racial  jealousies  and  distinctive  ten- 
dencies showed  signs  of  being  formidable  disruptive 
forces  within  the  church.  The  theological  animosities 
represented  by  the  Nestorian,  Donatist  and  Mono- 
physite  schisms  owed  more  than  has  been  commonly 
suspected  to  nationalist  feeling  in  Syria  and  Africa  and 
Egypt. 

Later,  as  the  Eastern  and  Western  Empires  drew 
apart,  theological  and  ecclesiastical  divergencies  fol- 
lowed the  political  separation.  And,  when  the  great 
schism  occurred,  it  was  at  least  as  much  due  to  political 
jealousies  as  to  theological  questions.  It  was  the  first 
great  and  conspicuous  failure  of  the  principle  of 
Catholicism  within  the  church.  Still,  in  the  half-con- 
verted West,  where  the  new  Europe  was  in  the  making, 
amid  the  seething  life  of  the  new  nations,  the  idea  of 
the  catholic,  supernational  fellowship,  centring  in  the 
Papacy  and  thence  wielding  authority,  was  a  majestic 
and  dominant  influence,  showing  at  times  splendid 
capacity,  but  making  also,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
tremendous  concessions  to  unregenerate  human  nature, 


16  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

as  in  the  matter  of  war  or  the  use  of  force  for  the 
interest  of  religion. 

Athanasius  had  thought  it  certain  that  there  could 
be  no  war  among  Christians  and  that  a  converted  race 
would  at  once  "beat  its  swords  into  ploughshares." 
To  his  mind  the  abolition  of  war  between  Christian 
nations  was  so  much  a  matter  to  be  taken  for  granted 
that  it  could  be  urged  as  an  incontrovertible  argument 
for  the  divinity  of  the  Christ  who  showed  this  pacific 
power.  And  other  fathers  had  thought  it  inconceiv- 
able that  force  could  be  used  among  Christians  in  the 
promotion  of  truth  or  suppression  of  heresy.  Such  a 
use  of  force  they  held  to  be  flatly  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  Christian  method  of  moral  persuasion. 

These  anticipations  were  sadly  falsified.  The  fact 
is  that  the  "conversion"  of  Europe  was  at  best  a 
lamentably  incomplete  and  superficial  process.  The 
use  of  civil  force  and  military  violence  to  "convert"  or 
destroy  heretical  or  non-Christian  individuals  or 
peoples  became  the  accepted  and  consecrated  method. 
And  within  the  catholic  nations  the  Church  showed 
little  effective  power  to  prevent  wars.  This  was  in  part 
because  Christianity  inevitably  compromises  in  the 
matter  of  war.  It  has  never  refused,  it  never  can 
refuse,  to  allow  to  an  unjustly  attacked  nation  the 
right  or  duty  of  self-defence.  And  what  constitutes  the 
justice  or  injustice  of  an  attack  always  remains  an  am- 
biguous question  on  which  national  feeling  is  hotly 
enlisted.  But  no  doubt  the  main  cause  of  failure  was 
the  natural  love  of  war.     In  the  books  of  Samuel  "the 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     ITi 

time  that  kings  go  out  to  battle"  is  a  mere  synonym 
for  the  spring,  when  the  restraint  of  winter  upon  mili- 
tary expeditions  is  over.  War  was  the  natural  occu- 
pation of  kings.  And  it  remained  so  in  the  mediaeval 
period.  Religion,  embodied  in  the  Catholic  Church 
and  centring  in  the  Papacy,  had  not  influence  enough, 
even  in  the  zenith  of  its  power,  to  restrain  the  mutually 
aggressive  ambitions  of  mediaeval  monarchs. 

Later  the  Holy  Roman  .Empire  became  a  shadow. 
The  political  power  of  the  Papacy  declined.  The  mod- 
em nations  formed  themselves  with  all  their  separate 
tendencies  and  interests.  Then  when  the  Reformation 
came,  though  it  was  at  the  start  a  religious  rebellion 
against  enormous  abuses  in  the  Catholic  Church,  yet 
it  fell  in  with  the  disruptive  tendencies  of  developed 
nationalism.  Separate  national  churches  formed  them- 
selves in  Germany,  England,  Scotland,  Switzerland,  and 
Scandinavia.  Russia  had  already  its  national  church 
owning  no  connection  with  any  Western  church. 

Thus  over  the  greater  part  of  Europe  the  separatist 
national  tendency  almost  obliterated  the  very  idea  of 
the  catholic,  supernational  religion.  Even  within  the 
limits  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  after  the  Re- 
formation period,  the  idea  of  church-fellowship  ceased 
to  have  any  considerable  influence  on  the  conditions  of 
war  or  peace.  Political  interest  determined  the  rela- 
tion of  one  nation  to  another  with  very  little  reference 
to  whether  the  rival  nation  was  of  the  same  religious 
communion  or  no.  And  so  we  come  down  to  the  present 
world-war,  when  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America 


18  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

and  Asia  and  Africa  are  waging  terrible  war  with  one 
another,  without  any  question  having  been  raised  at  all 
whether  those  who  are  being  attacked  and  destroyed 
are  Catholic  or  Orthodox,  or  Anglican  or  Protes- 
tant, or  whether  they  are  Christian,  Mohammedan,  or 
heathen.  The  very  idea  of  the  restraining,  pacific  power 
of  catholic  fellowship  seems  to  have  vanished  from  the 
earth. 

THE    OPPORTUNITY    FOR    THE    CHURCH 

But  man's  necessity  is  God's  opportunity.  The 
world's  despair  is  the  church's  hope.  Some  way  of 
peace  for  mankind  must  be  found,  or  the  whole  slowly- 
built  fabric  of  human  civilisation,  after  all  our  self- 
confident  boasting  of  our  science  and  our  education, 
will  dissolve  into  ruin. 

The  expedient  is  proposed  of  the  League  of  Nations. 
It  will  rest,  confessedly,  on  no  religious  basis  and  will 
have  no  authoritative  religious  sanction  such  as  the 
Middle  Ages  would  have  provided  or  professed  to  pro- 
vide. Nevertheless,  it  will  rest  upon  the  idea  of  a  fel- 
lowship of  humanity,  supreme  in  its  interests  over  all 
separate  national  claims,  a  fellowship  based  on  justice 
and  the  rights  of  weaker  as  well  as  stronger  nations 
— an  idea  which  has  mainly  had  its  origin  in  Christian 
thought  or  imagination,  and  which  is  the  product  of  a 
civilisation  at  least  deeply  leavened  by  Christianity 
and  to  which  the  name  of  Christ  is  still  the  name  above 
every  name. 

Let    the    Church    of    Christ,    then,   marshal    all   its 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     19 

divided  forces  to  welcome  and  keep  to  the  front  in  the 
attention  of  mankind  this  League  of  Nations,  based  on 
the  recognition  of  the  fellowship  of  nations,  and  force 
it  into  practical  realisation.  So  it  may  give  new  life 
to  the  idea  of  a  catholic  supernational  fellowship.  So 
it  may  revive  the  longing  for  a  catholic  church  worthy 
of  the  name.  So  it  may  not  only  make  the  nations  feel 
that  Christ  is  the  Prince  of  Peace,  but  also  make  the 
greatest  possible  contribution  to  the  widely-revived 
aspiration  after  religious  reunion  amidst  the  separated 
fragments  of  Christianity.  A  conference  of  free  nations 
to  determine  their  disputes  may  be  the  harbinger  in 
the  remoter  future  of  a  really  ecumenical  council  of 
Christendom. 

And  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  League  of 
Nations,  Christendom,  even  a  divided  Christendom,  can 
already  act  as  if  it  were,  what  in  its  central  being  it 
still  is,  one  body.  I  have  long  been  persuaded  that  the 
best  immediate  way  of  promoting  religious  unity  in  our 
own  country  is  for  all  the  fragments  of  the  Christian 
Church  to  act  together,  as  if  they  were  one,  on  the 
moral  and  social  questions  of  the  day.  Let  us  join  to 
attack  the  questions  of  housing,  wages,  fellowship  of 
employers  and  employed,  commercial  dishonesty,  secret 
commissions,  intemperance,  and  sexual  morality,  so  far 
as  they  affect  public  policy.  In  the  country  as  a  whole, 
and  in  each  town  and  district,  let  Anglicans,  Roman 
Catholics,  and  Protestants  sit  together  in  common 
council,  and  act  together  and  bring  the  weight  of  their 
combined  moral  influence  to  bear  on  these  grave  ques- 


20  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

tions  of  public  policy.  So  far  as  their  religious  prin- 
ciples admit,  let  them  join  in  prayer  together  on  neutral 
ground.  So  they  will  learn  to  know  one  another  and 
act  in  common.  This  will  be  the  best  basis  for  religious 
reunion  of  a  deeper  kind. 

So,  on  the  wider  field  of  international  relations,  let 
us  adopt  the  same  method.  The  Head  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  communion  and  the  Anglican  Bishops  of  the 
Province  of  Canterbury,  acting  with  unanimity  in  their 
convocation,  and  the  leaders  of  the  Free  Churches,  have 
all  given  the  weight  of  their  support  to  the  proposal 
of  the  League  of  Nations.  Let  them  not  be  content  to 
act  apart.  Let  them  combine  in  England  and  America 
for  the  same  purpose.  Let  them  organise  themselves 
for  a  propaganda. 

Cannot  the  same  be  done  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  the  countries  of  its  communion,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Pope?  Let  the  same  be  done  in  the 
small  remnant  of  neutral  Christian  nations.  If  we 
cannot,  as  I  feel  sure  we  cannot  under  present  circum- 
stances, have  an  Ecumenical  Christian  Conference,  such 
as  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala  proposes,  let  us  have  co- 
ordinated action  in  all  Christian  countries,  by  aU  por- 
tions of  Christendom  on  behalf  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

The  difficulties  of  the  proposal  are  no  doubt  por- 
tentous. Let  us  consider  at  least  briefly  the  conditions 
involved  in  the  formation  of  the  League,  that  we  may 
Dot  appear  to  underrate  the  difficulties. 

1.  What  is  needed  is  that  the  League  of  Nations 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     21 

should  not  be  left  unarranged  and  undefined,  as  a  remote 
prospect  somewhere  beyond  the  peace ;  for  if  the  peace 
is  arranged  on  some  other  basis,  the  moment  for  a  fresh 
organisation  is  not  likely  to  arrive.  What  is  needed 
is  that  the  League  shall  be  the  central  article  of  the 
peace,  the  basis  and  guarantee  of  the  whole  new  situ- 
ation. This  will  be  possible  only  if  the  nations,  as  well 
as  their  leading  statesmen,  are  already  prepared  and 
well  informed  as  to  the  principles  of  the  League.  This, 
again,  requires  an  active  propaganda  to  begin  at  once ; 
and,  for  my  own  part,  I  do  not  see  why,  within  the  Alli- 
ance, progress  should  not  be  made  at  once  with  the 
formulation  of  its  terms. 

2.  The  League  will  fail  of  great  part  of  its  effect  if 
Germany  and  Austria  do  not  enter  into  it.  But  here 
we  encounter  a  gigantic  difficulty.  A  profound  sus- 
picion attaches  itself  in  the  mind  of  the  Allied  states- 
men and  nations  to  all  the  pledges  or  promises  of  the 
German  Powers.  Nothing  at  present  can  restore  con- 
fidence in  the  intentions  of  their  rulers.  Thus  the 
greatest  promoter  of  the  League  would  be  such  measure 
of  military  success  on  our  side  as  would  permanently 
and  publicly  discredit  the  militarist  party  in  Germany, 
and  bring  to  the  fore  the  pacific  and  democratic  ele- 
ments in  German  opinion  which  really  favour  the  cause 
of  human  liberty.  That  such  elements  of  opinion  exist 
in  large  force  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt.  But  the 
League  asks  that  they  should  become  dominant.  The 
League  should  be,  as  President  Wilson  called  it,  a 
League  of  Free  Peoples.    But  the  change  in  the  balance 


22  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

of  forces  in  Germany  is  only  likely  to  be  brought  about 
by  the  failure  of  the  military  projects  of  the  ruling 
class.  To  bring  this  about  is  the  military  problem  of 
the  immediate  future.  Only  let  it  be  observed  that 
so  far  is  the  promotion  of  the  League  of  Nations  from 
being  antagonistic  to  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war  that  to  all  appearance  its  success  depends  upon  the 
war  being  not  only  vigorously  but  successfully  carried 
on,  to  the  point  of  fundamentally  discrediting  German 
militarism. 

3.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  in  Russia  a  lamentable 
spectacle  of  the  failures  and  crimes  of  liberty.  We  do 
not  despair  of  an  emergence  in  Russia  of  ordered  lib- 
erty. But  undoubtedly  the  prospect  is  dark.  And  the 
present  failure  of  Russia  has  not  only  enormously  weak- 
ened the  Allied  cause,  and  the  cause  of  liberty  in  Ger- 
many, but  it  has  added  a  quite  fresh  difficulty  to  the 
formation  of  a  League  of  Nations  which  should  include 
Russia.  The  other  nations  cannot  make  a  league  with 
chaos. 

4.  The  idea  of  the  League  which  subsists  in  the  minds 
of  the  statesmen  draws  a  distinction  between  minor  or 
"justiciable"  causes  of  dispute  between  nations — what 
one  may  call  questions  of  detail — and  the  greater  ques- 
tions in  which  those  vast  but  vague  interests,  the  honour 
and  security  of  nations,  are  involved.  The  former  are 
to  be  submitted  to  an  International  Tribunal  for  settle- 
ment ;  the  latter  to  an  International  Conference  or  Court 
of  Conciliation  for  discussion  and  mediation,  the  terms 
of  the  League  requiring  that  each  nation  should  be 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     23 

willing  to  give  time  for  the  Court  or  Conference  to  meet 
and  review  the  situation,  and  make  suggestions— time 
also  for  the  suggestions  to  be  considered — before  war 
is  declared  or  the  forces  of  either  party  mobilised. 
Here  the  weight  is  thrown  upon  the  value  of  delay. 
But  no  one  can  fail  to  see  that  where  so  inflammable 
a  quality  is  concerned  as  national  honour,  delay,  though 
it  affords  valuable  assistance,  may  not  suffice  to  subdue 
the  storm. 

5.  The  League  cannot,  of  course,  come  into  effective 
existence  unless  it  has  behind  it  sanctions  which  are 
sufficiently  formidable.  The  sanctions  proposed  are  the 
use  by  the  whole  League  of  an  economic  boycott  of  any 
nation  which  either  refuses  to  submit  to  arbitration  in 
the  case  of  justiciable  disputes,  or  refuses  the  required 
delay  in  the  greater  causes.  Again,  behind  this  eco- 
nomic boycott  would  be  the  use  of  armed  force.  An 
international  agreement  must  bring  into  existence  an 
international  force  to  be  used  at  the  last  resort  against 
the  offender.  Now  all  this  is  a  novel  machinery,  involv- 
ing, no  doubt,  innumerable  difficulties  of  detail  and 
principle.  It  is  necessary  especially  that  free  com- 
merce and  free  passage  by  sea  and  land  should  be  the 
normal  principle  between  the  nations,  only  to  give  way 
to  the  principle  of  exclusive  dealing  where  the  situation 
has  arisen  which  requires  and  justifies  weapons  of  war- 
fare against  an  unduly  aggressive  nation.  It  is  neces- 
sary again  that  the  whole  question  of  organizing  an 
international  force  for  land  and  sea  should  be  studied 


24  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

and  brought  out  into  effective  solution  by  the  time  of 
peace-making. 

6.  It  is  hardly  possible  that  there  can  be  an  effective 
League  of  Nations  without  some  principle  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  armaments  being  agreed  upon.  Here  again  we 
touch  a  matter  of  tremendous  difficulty. 

7.  Finally,  the  whole  question  of  the  representation 
of  nations  great  and  small  on  International  Courts  and 
Conferences  bristles  with  difficulties.  It  is  probable  I 
should  only  betray  my  ignorance  if  I  were  to  venture 
on  this  ground.  But  it  is  manifest  to  all  that  there 
is  a  real  danger  of  the  great  nations,  if  they  are  repre- 
sented proportionately  to  their  power,  overwhelming 
the  weaker  nations  and  acting  to  their  detriment.  It 
will  be  very  difficult  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  smaller 
nations  as  they  exist  at  present,  and  of  national  groups 
which  emerge  into  nations  in  the  future.  In  all  these 
matters,  as  in  others,  the  entrance  of  America  into  the 
war — detached  as  America  is  over  European  questions 
^ — is  an  immense  advantage.  But  no  doubt  the  difficul- 
ties remain  portentous.  As  we  confront  any  careful 
statement  of  them  by  an  expert  hand  we  feel  like 
Plato's  Socrates,  when  he  was  propounding  his  ideal 
republic  and  trembling  before  the  expected  waves  of 
obloquy  and  ridicule  which  his  proposals  would  excite. 
Apart  from  difficulties  of  organisation  and  difficulties 
of  detail,  there  is  no  question  that  any  proposal,  how- 
ever moderate,  to  limit  by  international  or  superna- 
tional  control  the  judgment  of  a  nation  about  what  its 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH     ^5 

own  honour  and  interests  require  will  excite  against  it 
a  very  deep  and  widespread  passion  of  national  pride. 


THE    GROUNDS    OF    HOPE 

Upon  what,  then,  can  we  rely  for  hope  and  resolu- 
tion?   I  think  upon  three  main  considerations: — 

1.  The  first  is  the  despair  of  the  future  which  fills 
the  minds  of  the  people  of  all  kinds  when  they  contem- 
plate the  tendencies  of  national  rivalry  as  they  existed 
before  the  war  and  led  to  its  outbreak,  unless  they  can 
be  profoundly  modified  or  effectively  restrained.  We 
simply  cannot  bear  to  think  of  making  a  peace,  how- 
ever just  a  peace,  and  then  leaving  the  nations,  after  a 
period  of  exhaustion,  to  watch  one  another  with  the 
old  jealousy,  and  build  up  armaments,  the  one  against 
the  other,  with  more  than  the  old  lavishness  of  expense, 
and  a  scientific  ingenuity  sharpened  tenfold  by  experi- 
ence, and  form  alliances  as  of  old,  one  against  another, 
until  another  world-war  breaks  out.  If  this  be  all  that 
can  be  looked  for,  I  say,  despair  possesses  us.  Noth- 
ing less  confronts  us  as  the  inevitable  issue  than  the 
ruin  of  a  civilisation  which  it  has  taken  so  many  cen- 
turies to  build  up :  both  its  economic  ruin  and  the  ruin 
of  its  culture  and  its  freedom.  I  suppose  that  it  is  this 
dread  that  has  made  the  greatest  practical  statesmen 
in  many  countries  propound  and  support  a  project 
which  seems  to  vulgar  eyes  so  idealistic  as  the  League  of 
Nations.  It  does  demand  a  vast  change  of  mind  in  the 
sentiment  of  nations  towards  one  another.     But  our 


26  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS: 

practical  statesmen  recognise  that  nothing  else  than 
such  a  world-wide  repentance  can  save  the  situation 
from  ruin. 

2.  Our  second  ground  of  hope  is  the  progress  and 
the  international  sympathies  of  democracy.  In  his 
splendid  "Complaint  of  Peace"  Erasmus,  in  1517, 
ascribes  wars  to  kings  and  peaceful  tendencies  to  *'the 
people,  the  ignoble  vulgar."  "If  the  military  trans- 
actions of  old  time  are  not  worth  remembrance,  let  him 
who  can  bear  the  loathsome  task  only  call  to  mind 
the  wars  of  the  last  twelve  years;  let  him  attentively 
consider  the  causes  of  them  all,  and  he  will  find  them 
all  to  have  been  undertaken  for  the  sake  of  kings;  all 
of  them  carried  on  with  infinite  detriment  to  the  people ; 
while,  in  most  instances,  the  people  had  not  the  smallest 
concern  either  in  their  origin  or  their  issue."  ^  "As  to 
the  people ;  in  all  these  countries  the  greater  part  of  the 
people  certainly  detest  war,  and  most  devoutly  wish 
for  peace." 

I  cannot  but  think  that  this  represents  still  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  general.  It  is  possible  to  imagine  a  mili- 
tarist and  bellicose  democracy;  and  certainly  where  a 
nation  has  been  robbed  of  its  territory  a  republic  will 
be  as  determined  to  recover  it  as  a  monarchy.  But,  on 
the  whole,  it  remains  true  that  if  there  were  nothing 
but  really  democratic  nations,  whether  republics  or 
constitutional  monarchies  in  form,  the  warlike  tenden- 
cies of  the  world  would  be  enormously  reduced;  and 

^C<ym'plaint  of  Peace.  English  translatioo  (Headley  Bros..  1917),  pp. 
43,  100. 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  CitURCH  '  ^T 

the  more  international  sympathy  and  intercourse  came 
to  prevail  among  democracies,  the  less  chance  there 
would  be  of  war.  In  England  we  believe  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  working  people  will  give  the  readiest  welcome 
to  the  League  of  Nations,  and  will  be  the  least  afraid  of 
what  it  involves. 

Now  all  appearances  point  to  the  progress  of  demo- 
cratic feeling  and  the  democratising  of  institutions  as 
the  tendency  of  the  future.  The  violence  of  the  Rus- 
sian reaction  is  not  likely  to  terrify  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Thus  our  second  hope  lies  in  the  strengthen- 
ing  of  the  principle  of  democracy;  and,  if  we  cannot 
get  rid  of  secret  diplomacy,  yet  we  can  feel  a  rational 
confidence  that,  the  more  democratic  nations  become, 
the  more  afraid  will  their  statesmen  be  of  contracting 
any  serious  obligations  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  which 
the  people  are  not  cognisant. 

3.  But  in  the  last  place — and  this  is  the  point  of 
this  paper — we  look  with  a  profound  hope  to  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  True,  there  is  no  rapid  road  to  heal  the 
divisions  of  Christendom.  But  there  is  no  reason  why 
in  welcoming  and  promoting  the  League  of  Nations  the 
Christian  Church  should  not  even  now  act  as  if  it  were 
one.  The  same  agreement  to  act  together  is  feasible 
on  all  social  and  moral  questions  so  far  as  they  affect 
public  policy.  In  the  case  of  the  League  of  Nations 
the  heads  of  the  Roman,  the  Anglican,  and  the  chief 
Protestant  communions,  both  in  the  British  Empire 
and  in  America,  either  have  spoken  in  assent  already  or 
are  likely  to  do  so  very  soon.    Why  should  not  all  the 


its'-  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

portions  of  Christendom  in  every  nation  combine  into 
a  single  body  to  welcome  and  to  propagate  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  League?  For,  indeed,  it  is  its  own  voice 
that  the  Church  hears  echoed  back  by  the  statesmen 
who  propose  it.  True  it  is  we  are  a  long  way  off  a 
reunited  Christendom — such  a  supernational  fellowship 
of  men  as  the  Catholic  Church  should  be.  True  it  is  that 
the  League  of  Nations  will  be  on  no  professedly  religious 
basis,  and  will  exclude  no  nation  on  account  of  its 
religious  beliefs.  Nevertheless,  there  can  be  few  prac- 
ticable measures  which  would  be  so  strong  a  witness 
to  Christian  principles  as  the  formation  of  a  League 
of  Nations  to  promote  and  maintain  peace,  and  nothing 
would  make  the  peoples  of  the  world  understand  what 
Christianity  stands  for  better  than  the  spectacle  of  a 
divided  Christendom  reunited  at  least  to  promote  this 
purpose. 

Thus  we  can  face  all  the  grave  difficulties  involved 
in  a  League  of  Nations  with  resolution  and  courage, 
relying  on  the  hope  which  springs  out  of  the  heart  of 
despair  and  finds  in  the  dissolution  of  the  old  order 
the  promise  of  the  new — on  the  sound  instinct  of  demo- 
cracy triumphing  over  dynastic  ambitions — and  on 
the  reviving  spirit  of  Christianity,  the  idea  of  catholic 
fellowship.    It  is  the  will  of  God. 


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the  immens      ^ 


BELGIUM  II 

Translated  fr~ 

The  authoi 
position  ar- 
the  Norwcj 
lire. 

THEBATTl 

"Mr.  Buchr 
vast  mano< 
four  stager- 

THELAND 


APR    25  1934 


^W   26  im 


Revealing 
telling  the 

I  ACCUSE! 


An  arraigi 
Facts  ever_ 

THE  GERM 

THE  GERM 

"From  the 
the  horror 
upon  a  pe< 
delphia  Pi- 

TRENCH  P 


Biographical 

A  glowing 

attractive " 

WCUNDEI 


The  high 
of  the  aut 
Germany'^ 

MY  HOME, 

MY  HOME 

The  simph 
the  few  d 


GEORGE 

PUBLISHERS     IN    AMtiKx 


LD  21-100m-7,'33 


380048 

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